Remembering back a few years

Posted by David Hardy · 11 September 2009 09:38 AM

September 11, 2002. First anniversary. I'm in the DC area for a meeting, at the Key Bridge Marriott. It faces the Potomac, right where the river bends from generally north to generally northwest. Maybe a couple of miles north of National Airport and the Pentagon. Flight paths leaving National go right up the Potomac.

I'm walking across the hotel parking lot when I hear jet engines coming up the river. OK, a takeoff from National. Then I realize they're louder and coming on faster than any civilian jet should. September 11, uh, oh. Then four F-16s come roaring up the Potomac at low altitude, turn with the river's bend, and climb away into the distance. Another hijack?

I look at the hotel and lots of windows have faces in them, staring out.

It turned out the Pentagon had a memorial service capped by a flyover, which hadn't been heavily publicized...

My Brother use to work at El Toro Naval Air Station in CA. The f-16s use to scramble and fly low level to the coast and the beyond. Loud was not the word for it. Years later I was at an airshow in NJ when they had a lone f-16 approach at 400 feet and when he was close to the field kick in the afterburners. Everyone knew he was there and the ground shook :)
You do not forget that!